Fashionably aroused

We’ve all been sexually aroused in the wrong place at the wrong time.

But have you ever thought we should take things a step further?

Well no fear, because now there’s a dress that renders itself clear whenever the wearer is in the mood to get it on.

Created by Dutch designer Daan Roosegaarde, the “Intimacy 2.0” uses an assortment of technology, including LEDs, electronics and smart fabrics to become translucent when stimulated by a hastening heartbeat.

Though Roosegaarde claims his design is “a fashion project exploring the relation between intimacy and technology,” I can’t help but feel we’re losing an essential component of propriety in a society where privacy is an increasingly uncommon
occurrence.

Skirts and dresses are often times already short enough.

Fabrics cling to the human form, leaving little to no room for imagination.

Now Roosegaarde’s dress just feels like the next step in advancement toward endorsed public nudity.

But hey, look on the bright side, no more stressing out about what to wear Saturday night.

It’ll just end up disappearing anyway.

This also trudges up the age-old debate about how much sexuality can coexist peacefully with art in the public frame.

What is indecent? What is obscene? Is art allowed to be both?

Fashion is certainly an essential medium of art. It’s an art we live our lives in.
But in cases such as this, some people tend to be offended by the nudity, like on television or film.

I’m certainly not offended by this dress, and I wouldn’t advocate for banning it.

I just wonder if in this case, the garment comes off as tacky and being provocative for provocative’s sake.

If art is supposed to have a message, I don’t see this dress as having one worthy of conveying.

It appears simply to exist for the purpose of advertising one’s arousal.

Perhaps I’m just being excessively prudish and putting too much thought into my days as a consciously horny Indiana youth.

I don’t feel as if I’m alone in saying I’ve hid, mostly unsuccessfully, many an unwanted erection in my middle school and even high school days.

Having pants that turned translucent would have done me no favors during puberty.
I’m not shy about my sexuality or sexuality in general.

Arousal is a perfectly human occurrence and sexual tendencies shouldn’t be avoided or restricted from discussion.

But what is sexuality without an air of mystery?

Half the fun lies in the chase and seduction, both of which would be obsolete if our clothes disappeared when our libidos perked up. 

At the end of the day, even if I’m on not completely on board with the vanishing dress, I still have to admit it’s pretty cool.

As far as fashion goes, it is innovative and original.

I only worry if this is just another blow to our already crumbling foundation of
discretion.

In an age of Tinder, relationship statuses and hook up culture, where do we cross the line?

Still, fashion is personal expression.

So it is up to people to decide whether they want their clothes evaporating whenever they’re ready to get it on.

For my two cents, I’d rather my clothes stayed just the way they are every time I’m aroused.

­— wdmcdona@indiana.edu